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My 2014 Hair Goals

It’s still the beginning of the year, so it’s not too late for me to make my 2014 hair goals! I push myself to set goals because it gives me focus throughout the year. Setting goals really helped me while transitioning. For example, since I risked a lot of breakage from managing two textures, my primary hair goal for 2012 was to minimize breakage.

Why focus on 1-2 goals?

Of course everyone wants longer hair, stronger hair, less breakage, more elasticity, and the list goes on. But I’m a firm believer that focusing on 1-2 goals increases your chance of achieving them. It’s hard to track the results of your hair goals when you’re focused on so many. Plus, focusing on 1-2 goals let’s you dive deeper and lay out action plans to help you get to where you need to go. Using my 2012 example above, I achieved my goals through learning about protein treatments (and balancing them with moisturizing) and protective styling. So below are my 2014 hair goals and my action plans!

2014 Hair Goal (1): Minimize breakage(resulting from heat damage)

My hair suffered heat damage from my wedding hair trial, and as a result I find myself working with two textures again. This happened Sept 2013, so the majority of my texture is a looser curl with weaker strands, but my new growth is my extremely tight 4c curl. So you can imagine detangling across the two textures can be a hassle (which leads me to my 2nd goal below).

Daily moisturizing – I still use a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 sum of olive oil, sweet almond oil, aloe vera juice, and vegetable glycerin). It’s all in a small spray bottle that I use nightly before sealing with my Hot 6 Oil and sometimes also adding Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing smoothing (or a similar heavy cream)

Protective styling – Two-strand twists are my go-to, but I am looking to expand this year. Looking for quicker protective styling that doesn’t take me hours at a time!

With the heat damage mentioned above, my hair has some stubborn tangles near the root where my two textures meet.

Action plan for minimizing tangles:

Stretched hair – A huge part of this for me is changing the way I allow my hair to air dry. Right now it air dries in big twists I wear when washing, but I’m considering a flat twist/two-strand twist combo that will keep my roots stretched more. More on this later.

Patient detangling sessions – I had a lot more patience when I was transitioning, but detangling got a little easier when I became fully natural so I lost a lot of that patience :). I’m going back to only washing my hair on Saturdays or Sundays, so I can really take the time I need to get the job done in a damage-less way.

By December 2014, I will hopefully have some length to show for my new strategy!

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2 thoughts on “My 2014 Hair Goals”

I rally enjoyed reading this blog. Setting goals is definitely the way to go. I dont’t know the texture of your hair but I’m a 4b/4c textured natural. Over the course of a year I’ve made some homemade recipes that have helped minimize my shedding and breakage and made mud tangling easier. If interested please follow my blog for recipes.

Thanks so much for the positive comments 🙂 I have 4c hair, but with the heat damage it has loosened to maybe more of a 4b texture (?). Hair typing is not my strength 🙂 I will definitely take a look at your blog. I’m VERY interested in anti-breakage recipes!